Mark,
> People may differ in what they think of as a locale. We tend to take a
> narrow view, that it is principally items that differ according to
> language, thus excluding other items like preferred timezone,
> preferred currency, preferred character set, smoker/non-smoker
> preference, meal preference (vegetarian, kosher, etc.), music
> preference, religion, party affiliation, favorite charity, etc.
>
> It is not that these other items may not be important; they may very
> well be, depending on the application. And thus one may need to
> communicate them. But they don't necessarily belong in an
> all-encompassing 'locale'.
You are right that you have to draw the line somewhere. I used to think of time zones as separate from locales until I became more familiar with Olsen time zones. He establishes times zones that are unique subdivisions within a country. This makes sense since each country has political control over time zones. The time zone parameters are regional data within the country data. It is sub-country data like language within a country may vary to produce sub-languages.
Carl